California Wildfire Mitigation: “Turn Out the Lights…”

Guest drive-by by David Middleton

PG&E Could Shut Off Power For Millions To Prevent Wildfires

February 7, 2019

MATTHEW S. SCHWARTZ

Pacific Gas & Electric could shut off power to more than 5 million customers when extreme weather conditions are ripe for wildfires to break out, the company said Wednesday. It’s an expansion of the company’s previous power shutoff program, which only let the company turn off power to about half a million customers.

Several power companies submitted their required “wildfire mitigation plans” to California regulators this week. But PG&E’s plan may be especially consequential, given that its power lines have been blamed for several Northern California fires over the past few years. The company filed for bankruptcy last month in the wake of billions of dollars in potential liability after two years of wildfires.

The company told the state’s public utilities commission that to address wildfire risk, “shutting off power will likely be necessary and may need to be performed more frequently due to the extreme weather events and dry vegetation conditions.”

“We understand the urgency of the situation, that lives could be at stake and that we need to move more quickly,” the company said.

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NPR

Rather than actually addressing the problem, just shut off the electricity…

Who would have guessed that the solution to both climate change and wildfires was shutting off electricity? Apparently, these actual solutions are off the table…

Why California’s Best Strategy Against Wildfire Is Hardly Ever Used

Cal Fire Chief Blames Wildfires on Mismanaged Forests

California’s deadliest wildfires were decades in the making. ‘We have forgotten what we need to do to prevent it’

Mismanaged, overcrowded forests provide fuel to historic California wildfires, experts say

Climate change is the new scapegoat for failed forest and water policy

Trump was right: California’s forests have been grossly mismanaged

I guess since California has ruled out proper wildland management, they’re left with blaming it on climate change and/or President Trump and shutting off electricity. Even if climate change is partially to blame, there’s nothing that can be done to “fix” the climate on a human (or any other) time scale. So… I guess it’s Back to the Pleistocene! (AKA the Green New Deal)… “Turn out the lights, the party’s over”…